Kianoush Eshaghi wrote:
> A vocabulary (charily asserted an "ontology")can be modeled by RDFS
> according to object-oriented technique, for example a property can be
> inherited by some super property.
>
> My question is does my property inherit the all domains and ranges of
> its super property, if I let inherit the property?
No, it does not, save by implication (at least in the normative
intensional semantics of RDFS - http://www.w3.org/TR/rdf-mt/).
What I mean is this: suppose we have a property p with a domain A :
p rdf:type rdf:Property.
p rdfs:domain A.
and we create a subProperty q :
q rdfs:subPropertyOf p.
RDFS does _not_ entail:
q rdfs:domain A.
However, whenever we _use_ the property q in a statement, like so:
x q y.
Because q is a subProperty of p we infer (rule rdfs7):
x p y.
...and because the domain of p is A we infer (rule rdfs2):
x rdf:type A.
So "implicitly" the domain is carried over the subproperty.
If you look at the RDF Semantics section 4.1 and 7.3.1, you will find
there a specification of extensional entailments. In such a stronger,
extensional interpretation, the domain restriction _is_ explicitly
inherited. Most implementations of RDF/RDFS reasoners stick to the
intensional semantics, however.
HTH.
Jeen
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Jeen Broekstra Aduna BV
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